The Omniscient Ones

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

ESSAY__JoSe__Siddhartha

In the story Siddhartha, written by Herman Hesse a young Brahmin's son, Siddhartha is beginning his own journey in search of enlightenment. The journey consists of four stages: innocence, initiation, chaos, and resolution. As he spends his life looking for ways to reach nirvana he goes through rebirth many times, each time learning something new. You can’t reach nirvana and understand everything from lectures and book, its something that one has learned from experiences.

When Siddhartha decides to leave the illustrious one, Buddha, is another step he takes in his journey, because he learns that his teachings have certain flaws in them and that Buddha himself didn’t achieve nirvana through teachings. "The teachings of the enlightened one Buddha embrace much, they teach much--how to live righteously, how to avoid evil. But there is one thing that is clear, worthy instruction does it not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the illustrious one himself experience…”/ (Hesse 34). Hesse shows how Siddhartha is able to look beyond the teachings and confront Buddha about what he thinks about his teachings. He comments on how all they teach is how to avoid many evils but never on what he experienced in those few moments of nirvana. “You have done your own seeking, in your own way, through thought, through meditation, through knowledge, through enlightenment,”/ (Hesse 33). In this passage he acknowledges the fact that, Buddha in fact did not reach enlightenment through teachings, but through hours of meditation, deep thoughts, and by gaining an abundant amount of knowledge.

Siddhartha is by the river sitting with Vesudeva and they both finally reached nirvana, just by listening to the river running. “When Siddhartha listened attentively to this river, to this song of a thousand voices; when he did not listen to the sorrow or the laughter, when he did not bind his soul to any one particular voice and absorb it in his Self, but heard them all, the whole. The unity then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om- perfection” (Hesse 136). Here Hesse speaks about how all the voices that Siddhartha had heard in his head had finally gotten in to unison. No longer did he feel tied to one single voice and longer fought with his destiny. “From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny. There shone in his face the serenity of knowledge, of one who is no longer confronted with conflict of desires, who has found salvation, who is in harmony with the stream of events…(Hesse 136). Now Hesse speaks about how after so many years of searching Siddhartha finally realizes that he was fighting himself the whole time. He didn’t feel the need to gamble or to fit in, the need to be like the ordinary people. Everything was in its rightful place in the world to be able to experience that hour of nirvana, enlightenment.

You can’t reach nirvana and understand everything from lectures and books, its something that one has tolerant from experiences. That’s exactly what Siddhartha had to go through to finally be a peace with him self and his surroundings. By leaving the Gotoma Buddha, and by simply taking the time to understand the things flow in life, like a river. Now he has finally reached the stage of his journey, resolution.

1 Comments:

  • At 10:50 AM, Blogger Lychee said…

    Excellent, essay, Jose. A few spelling errors, but your theory and evidence are clear and convincing.

     

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